Fiore Online
by Empress Fishy
Summary: Due to her father's buisness reasons, Lucy Heartfilia logs on to Fiore Online, the first VRMMORPG ever. But a dark twist emerges, which might change her life for the better or for the worse...natsu/lucy. SAO!AU. Going through a rewrite, writer's block! (small hiatus)
1. Fiore Online

**A/N:**_Whooo! Time to start Fiore Online! As you can see, this idea is heavily based on SAO, but the game is in Fiore! I'm super excited about this fic, and can't wait to get started! __*Note: Fairy Tail(the guild!) starts out with the power they have currently in the Tartaros arc. Yes, that means Lucy still has water powers and all her current keys(except for Loke) but Gray will not be a devil slayer. Also, Lucy's celestial magic will be a glitch magic(lost magic). I also changed how many people are getting the copy since the Fairy Tail world is so immense._

* * *

"Fiore Online?" The young blonde questioned timidly to a tall, dark blonde man facing out the large picture window. The man sighed as he overlooked his immense property,and turned around to face his daughter.

"Yes, _Fiore Online._ My advisors told me to perhaps take interest of the company who will be releasing this game," He spoke in his deep voice, "However, I will not take any chances." Lucy twiddled her fingers awkwardly in the pregnant pause.

Lucy cocked her head. Why would her father ever take interest in a video game company? As a child, he always frowned upon video games, saying it wastes the time that you should have spent studying. Nevertheless, Lucy gamed in secret and even became pretty famous , if Father found out-

"It is the first of it's kind..." Jude wanders off midway. "Of what?" Lucy rudely interrupted, then put her hand to her mouth, embarrassed of her rude intrusion. Jude silently chuckled at his daughter, then continuing on his speech, "Fiore Online is an VRMMORPG. It's the ultimate virtual world - virtual reality."

Lucy's chocolate brown eyes widened in awe. _Right, I've heard of it from one of the gaming forums! _She thought. "I would have liked to personally test this game out, but as you know, as a CEO of the Heartfilia company I don't have enough time," He spoke, "So you will play this and report on it's worth?" He says, his pitch black eyes staring at the blonde.

"O-Of course." Lucy strained to keep her excitement in control. Jude nodded, slightly turning the corners of his mouth up to a smile for a split second. "That is all. Return to your room, and you shall find the game equipment there. The game will only be released at 2:00 pm." Lucy started to walk to the door, then suddenly turned around. She had almost forgotten to curtsy! The teenager did a quick curtsy to her father, then closed his office door shut.

"YES!" Lucy screams in joy. She skips to her room in glee, with all the servants staring at her. She didn't care-for the first time in her life, she was _allowed _to play a video game, and not only that, _the first virtual reality game ever!_ She unlocked the huge, detailed white and silver door to her bedroom.

Sure enough, there was this helmet-like contraption, the game, and a two-page guide on her bed. She grinned and made her way to her huge blue canopy bed. Lucy read through the two pages in a matter of 2 minutes. From what she read, Fiore Online was a VRMMORPG in which you could be a mage, blacksmith, guild leader, or another job out of their many other options. You can choose one magic at the beginning of the game.

But what was the _goal? _Lucy searched through the brief manual, and finally found it - _Aha! _To complete the game, you must defeat all 100 bosses on all 100 floors with your guild. Also, you can strive to be the strongest guild in Fiore to receive the majority of the bonuses in boss raids...

Lucy then prodded at the helmet-contraption thing, only to find a 20 page manual come out of it. The blonde groaned a little, as much as she liked reading _anything(_she even reads the back of soda cans for the heck of it) She wanted to get on to the game. Buuut, she didn't want to make a stupid mistake by not reading everything through, so Lucy begrudgingly opened the nerve gear manual.

She then set up everything for the nerve gear, which really didn't need a manual(it was simple enough for a 5 year old to do it) She froze, what if there was player-based information she needed to know? The girl glanced at the clock-she was pretty sure she could get this done under 10 minutes...Lucy didn't want to be the only one who didn't know things that most players knew!

Lucy slid her expensive laptop from her nightstand's drawer, typing in the web browser,"Fiore Online". This game only released 1,000,000 copies, and it was made by a guy named Zeref...no last name, huh? Apparently the game was anticipated for a while...wow, Lucy really needed to get out of the rock she was under.

Lucy sighed as she looked at the time: 1:57 p.m. She better get set up fast! She inserted the game into the Nerve Gear, clumsily plugged it to the wall, and got down on the bed. The gray Nerve Gear was a little heavy on her head when she turned to look at the time: 1:59 p.m., 50 seconds in. Perfect!

"Link start!"

* * *

**A/N:** _Yeah, well I deleted the last paragraph since it was an awkward place to leave off__.What will happen next? Oh hohoh..._

**Karin Searim**


	2. Hargeon

**A/N: **_Okay, okay...I lied! I'm not going to make celestial magic a lost magic, gomen ne...but when she eventually *SPOILER* loses Aquarius, SPOILER END* she'll inherit star magic, another lost magic. I'm making Sorry for updating so late, I was gone on a road trip! and I was a lazy ass_

**Welcome to Fiore Online! **Bold letters flashed infront of Lucy. The blonde's breath hitched in wonder as she inspected her _virtual _surroundings. It was in an old medieval-type cathedral, beautifully made with golden accents and skillfully "sculpted" marble statues. Huge roman-style pillars ran through the room.

Tall, paned windows gave a glimpse of the busy cobblestone street with a few players who were quick with the signup process strolling through the gardens, buying items, or just relaxing with each other. It looked surreal, and Lucy found herself more attracted to the game.

Out of the corner in her eye, a small golden plate above the grand entrance door(which also had the most meticulous details) had something written on it. Lucy squinted her eyes-it was written in an old flourish style.

_Kardia Cathedral Grand Entry Room : ID 71X767_

"_**Please type in your preferred username and password." **_The cold computer female voice told calmly,interrupting the wonder of our heroine. Suddenly, a tan, old paper colored window appeared infront of the awestruck girl - even this "high modern" like thing blended into the medieval-like background, with brown flourishes outlining it.

Lucy was so caught up in slowly taking the many details of this world, she was interrupted yet again. "_**Please type in your preferred username and password." **_The computer voice said in a slightly louder voice,as if she was annoyed. "Oh..." Lucy blushed(even though there wasn't anybody around).

She paused for a second, but entered Lucy as her username. Papa would probably take this game away from her when she's done, so why not just enter in her name? Lucy hastily typed in the password on the touch keypad window. She quickly pushed in "Save". The blonde was impatient.

But, nevertheless, another window slid in, earning a groan from Lucy.

_Choose your gender: _

Boy _or _Girl

Lucy sighed and pressed girl. "_**Please choose your magic type." **_The cold female voice commanded again. Holograms of every type of magic with a description, symbol, type, and popularity were shown, and Lucy slid past most of them. _Almost all of them are so popular and overused! _

_Celestial Magic: Allows mage to summon spirits to fight by holding their key and saying their name. Two types of keys: normal and zodiac. There are only 12 gold keys, whom all bear names of the zodiac. Zodiac keys are very powerful and takes months of training and seeking to get. _Popularity: Very rare. Type: Holder.

Lucy's interest caught on. As a child, she and her late mother would gaze into the night sky every night, looking at stars. Where each star was on the night sky "mapped" the future, according to Layla, but Lucy had her own interpretations. The constellations of the zodiac where her favorite to interpret.

Without even realizing it, Lucy pressed the golden, flashing "confirm magic" button with her slender finger. "Ah, damn it!" Lucy cursed out loud, there could have been better things up ahead!

Suddenly, Lucy sees her fingers dissolving into warm golden specks. Soon, her torso, legs, and neck followed the same pursuit. Before she had a chance to remark anything in surprise, her face, too, dissolved.

For a second, all she could see was a golden, blinding light too bright to look at.

Before the blonde could even comprehend what was going on, she found herself outside the golden front gates of a cathedral. _No, __Kardia_ _Cathedral._ Lucy corrected herself. She looked at her provocative choice of an outfit and blushed. She never got to choose this! The game did it itself!

She did a sad attempt to tug down the navy miniskirt, but to no avail. Keys jingled in a leather key holder on her belt, and a whip was coiled on her left hip. When the celestial mage saw her "shirt"...well, let's just say she didn't take it well. "IS THE GAME SYSTEM HORNY OR SOMETHING?" Lucy cried out.

It didn't even pass as a shirt, it was a really, really short blue and white tube top. Lucy sighed in relief as she noticed she had a blue cardigan to cover some of her.

"Woah!"

Lucy swiveled to her left, to find a player gasping in awe. Thousands of gold figures transforming into their respective avatars surrounded her. Her eyes widened in surprise. Of course, it was an VR_MMORPG_, she almost forgot.

Lucy then felt very, very self conscious. Fortunately, she then began to realize most people, boy _or_ girl, were dressed in an...um..._interesting _way. Lucy took a deep breath, and walked around the port town-_Hargeon, _as she was later informed.

Hargeon is the beginning city, and it's quite small. Some experienced beta test players took off to the next town, but Lucy was just learning the basics of the game. Lucy strolled through the small, charming port town, taking in the details.

After exploring the town and the basics of the game for a couple of hours(also finding out there's this magazine thing named the Weekly Sorcerer), Lucy decided it was best to head to the to head to another town. The main transportation of Fiore is trains, so a train station must be here somewhere.

The train station was near the heart of the town, not hard to miss. It was large, proving the fact that quite indeed trains were the best way to get around. She had no idea where to go, but went up to the ticket booth. A large map was situationed right near it, so Lucy chose a random town.

Lucy walked up to the ticket booth. "I need a ticket to Flor." The AI chuckled, to her dismay. "Young lady, you need to unlock at least boss 40 to go there." Ehhh? The AI continued, "You can advance to far-out towns in Fiore if you defeat more and more bosses. You haven't even encountered your first boss yet, so the only options for you are Crocus or Magnolia."

Lucy blushed, embarrassed. "I-I'll take the train to Magnolia." The ticket booth clerk/AI looked at her expectantly. _Oh! He must be expecting me to pay something. _Lucy glanced up, and saw the board.

_Ticket...600 J_

On the upper left corner of her eyesight, there was a small red jewel with 10,000 next to it. 10,00 jewels. The start-off money.

She didn't know how to get the money , though. She hesitantly brought up her menu and went to inventory. Nope, not there. She checked for it in her main menu. Not there, either.

Foolishly, she looked at her leather key holder. Sure enough, there was a compartment in which she had to type her password to get to. Tan paper money, or jewels, were there. The system somehow automatically knew of the situation and she ended up with 600 jewels in her hands.

She placed it under the window, to the AI. The AI slid a tan, thick-papered ticket to her. The number that once said 10,00 now said 9,400. She frowned a little at the lost of money, then glanced at her ticket info. Okay...platform 2! She found it almost immediately, since it was a small number. She sighed in relief and sat down on a bench facing away from the tracks.

"HELP MEEEEE!"

A loud wail was heard behind her, in one of the now moving train cars(she missed it!). A small..._blue _haired cat(which the loud wail was directed to, she presumes) watched it calmly, on the platform.

"It left." The cat stated calmly. Lucy's eye twitched. Once. Twice.

"WHAT THE HELL _ARE _YOU?!"

**A/N: **_Ha ha! I kept my promise! It's still Friday! (well...atleast here...) Yay! I lied again. Lucy MIGHT meet Natsu next chapter. Might...Well, I'm glad that I did something productive today._

_**Karin Searim**_


	3. A Blue Talking Cat?

**A/N:**_Hey! Sorry for the slow update, guys-school started(ughhhhh) Look how long it's been!_

**T**he small, blue furred cat gave her a what-the-heck-are-you-saying look. "Are you weird or something?" The cat questioned her like she was ridiculous. Lucy's eye twitched again, pulling out her pointer finger, and barked, "Like you're the one to be sayin- saying..._saying..." _

The mage clutched her head in wild panic. "Lucy are you going insane? Are you making imaginary friends? Are you talking to a cat?" Lucy was now cradling her legs with her arms, moving back and forth.

"You're already insane..." Happy muttered under his breath, in the corner. A vein bulged on the blonde's forehead, "SHUT UP, STUPID CAT!"

"I'm an exceed." Lucy scrunched her eyebrow in confusion. Happy sighed, "Lushi's so dumb that she has to have everything explained to her." Oh...he must be some sort of annoying AI.

This stupid cat will be strangled if he says one more critical remark about her.

"If you make one more bad statement about me, I'll have the GM remove your program from the system!" Lucy threatened, pointing dramatically at the small blue creature.

Happy frowned genuinely. "S-sorry..." Lucy bit back. Suddenly, he burst into tears. "LUCY'S SO SKEPTICAL OF ME SHE THINKS I'M AN AI!" He sobbed. The mage's eye widened, "What? YOU'RE A REAL TALKING CAT?!"

The exceed sniffed, finally quieting down and glancing at the public who were giving them looks as if they were insane. "I have a cursor and an HP and MP." He frowned and explained.

"Well...ah ha...sorry about that?" Lucy was freaking out, "How did you even get in here? Is your owner with you?"

Happy's face twisted into annoyance, "Natsu doesn't own me, he's my partner-oh, Natsu! I forgot about him!"

Lucy's face turned into a smirk, "Was he the guy yelling 'help me' on the train?" Happy waved his paw in conformation, "Severe motion sickness." Lucy giggled, appalled at the idea that someone could be so motion sick that he would be sick in the virtual world, too.

"_Train to Magnolia returning" _The computer voice boomed through the train station. "That must be him!" Happy exclaimed. "So soon?" Lucy asked dubiously.

Happy tched, "You really know nothing about this game." Lucy blushed. "-The trains here are virtual, so therefore you could program them to be physically impossibly fast." Lucy raised her eyebrows at his knowledge of this small cat, "Are you sure you're not an AI?"

Happy ignored Lucy, "There he is!" He pointed his paw at the groaning pink boy, chanting "Never again, never again..." He groaned and stood up.

"How could you do this to me, Happy?" He wailed. Lucy burst into laughter. "Huh?" Natsu asked, looking at her.

"Who are you?"

**A/N:**_Two words: Got. Lazy._


	4. Calling the GM

The blonde felt a sudden shyness. So far in this game, she's never really spoke to another human being.

Information brokers; yes; but it was more or less minimalistic. Both sides just wanted it to end quickly and turn out productively. Besides, it had a professional, not personal tone to it.

Happy was somewhat more easy to talk to, since he didn't take a form of a stranger, a human that is hiding behind the costume of Virtual Reality.

As a cat, Happy seemed to prove some sort of level of innocence in Lucy's mind.

A human being, on the other hand was a whole other deal. The idea of being tricked and deceived - that was scary to Lucy. A person who probably doesn't even look like themselves IRL.

"H-hello... I'm Lucy..." Lucy meekly said, waving her hand slightly. Her face had flushed shy girl look, completely opposite to the state she was in a few seconds ago.

Happy glanced at the mage, surprised to see her in such a foreign stage of shyness. Flashing a worried look, the exceed told himself to passively ignore it, flying towards his partner.

"YOU CAN FLY,TOO!" A sudden shriek rose once again. Happy looked back to a much,much more familiar Lucy; her widened chocolate orbs and her index finger rudely pointed at him.

_Well, that was quick,_ Happy observed.

"She's weird." The pink haired boy whispered loudly to his flying companion. "Mm-hmm. She thought I was an AI!" Happy exclaimed in a not so quiet voice.

"You know I can hear you!" Lucy annoyedly said, vein bulging. Ignoring her, they continued their conversation in a much lower tone. Lucy could occasionally hear the words "weird", "Luigi", and "horrible" being exchanged throughout the conversation.

Randomly, out of the blue, the pink haired boy came up to her and grinned. "Hey Luigi. I'm Natsu."

_Slap._

"I TOLD YOU TO FRICKIN QUIT CALLING ME LUIGI!" Lucy yelled at Natsu, catching the attention of the whole train station.

Lucy blushed, realizing the commotion she caused. "Wow. You _are_ really weird." Natsu said calmly, rubbing his now red cheek.

Lucy forced herself to calm down, and think of something else than Natsu so she could refrain from punching him.

Her eye still irritatedly twitching, it glanced up the right hand corner of the screen. _18:03, huh?_ Lucy took note, _Wait, what was that in civilian time?_

After her huge break down that she couldn't even convert military time, she finally figured out it was, indeed, 6:04 pm now. _Oh crap, father's gonna yell at me for being late to dinner! _

She hastily swiped her right hand for the menu to open, went to options,

and...what?

Lucy's chocolate brown orbs searched over the whole menu and all the buttons, and scanned over once again to double check but she could not find a logout button.

Lucy sighed,she knew she was going to get teased at by Happy and Natsu, but she needs help.

"Lucy, you're really new to video gaming, aren't you?" Natsu said smirking. Lucy blushed furiously, "No, it's just that this damn game makes it so hard to find the logout button!"

Natsu exaggeratedly sighed, "Oh, well. It shall be my job to teach weirdos like Luig-"

"JUST CUT TO THE CHASE!" Lucy yelled(a bit quieter so she wouldn't be the center of attention again). The celestial mage knew Natsu was enjoying this far too much.

"Well, you find it here..." Natsu stifling back a laugh, calmly sliding down the main menu and clicking options, and... "What?" Natsu said seriously.

"I knew it!" Lucy cheered. Natsu's face turned completely emotionless. Lucy paused, since she'd never seen this kind of Natsu before.

"I-It must be a glitch...?" Lucy said in a small voice. "I-It must be." Natsu declared. Lucy furrowed her eyebrows in agreement and nodded.

"Well, if you don't mind me, I'm going to call the GM." The mage said confidently, swiping the menu. "...Ara?" Natsu peeked over her shoulder.

"_The GM receiving server is shut down ; _what is this?" Natsu said worriedly.

"Shut...down..." Lucy murmured...

"That means..." Lucy started to visibly sweat, her heart pounding loudly.

"That means?" Natsu asked in all seriousness.

"B-basically, the GM calling system w-would say it isn't available if it was for a temporary time. B-but in gaming and computer terms sh-shut down means..." Lucy took a shaky breath and gulped,

"It means the GM calling system is unavailable. Forever."

**A/N: Hello Lovelies! I've missed you all so much. I realize this is crappy writing(it hasn't been edited) but I wanted to get it up ASAP. You all deserve more updates, and I can't believe this story got followers after being so unactive! School's been hectic, but I'm glad I had Veteran's day off so I could update.**

_**-Karin Searim**_


	5. Death Game

Natsu's eyes widened. "We should get information. _Fast._" Natsu said urgently. Happy started to whimper, "B-but I was gonna meet Charle IRL today."

Natsu stared at his companion. "Sorry, Happy. I promise I'll get this issue done with and you can go meet her. In the meaning time, you can find her in game." Happy sniffled and agreed.

Lucy was tense. She knew that this was a serious complication. If the Nerve Gear was a VRMMORPG full dive gaming console, it would probably have microwaves-which is horrible if you've been fulldiving for 10+ hours. It's already been about 6 hours for her. This was no good.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Lucy placed her hands on her hips, looking sternly at Natsu.

"I know an information broker! She should know, she's really smart." Natsu grinned as he swiped the menu and IMed her.

He pressed send, and boredly stood there for a few minutes. "She's probably talking to a client or something." He concluded. Lucy spaced out, looking at her keys.

Suddenly, realization dawned upon her. The celestial mage took a deep breath. She was going to have to summon a key, which she had done a few hours ago but it depleted much of her MP.

"Open the gate of!" Lucy swung the key to her right, "The southern cross, Crux!" She ended with her key nearly touching the ground, in between her legs. "What?" Natsu murmured.

"Crux, I need you to find info about what's going on with the log-on glitch and the dysfunctional GM calling system." Lucy demanded. Crux, the southern cross, stroked his cross-like mustache. "Let me sleep, and I'll see if I can do anything." Lucy nodded firmly, urging him to do his task.

_Ping!_ Natsu looked at his IM box, and read out loud the reply. "_So many people have been asking me, but I can't even find it through my archives!" _Natsu sighed, "Geez, thought Levy would be helpful." He turned around to face Lucy.

"Who the hell is that old guy?" Natsu asked, curiously. Lucy's eye twitched, "He's a celestial spirit. More specifically, the gate of the southern cross. He specializes in finding information."

"...So what type of mage are you?" Lucy smacked herself. "A _celestial mage._" She sighed and glanced at Crux, who was still "sleeping". "What type of mage are you then?"

"A-" Crux suddenly got up, his face contorting with conflict. "Lucy-sama, this game - well, I cannot disclose that info to you. All I can say is that log-out button is non-existent in this game."

Lucy's eyes widened. "Wh-what do you mean Crux? Is it part of a quest on launch day?" Crux sighed heavily. "Do not worry, you'll find all that information soon. However, I cannot disclose that info to you right now."

"Hey, old man, why're ya avoiding our every question? Is something going on?" Natsu shook the spirit. "Natsu stop." Lucy stated firmly. "Whatever is going on, we'll find out soon."

Lucy pointed at the sky near the the town hall of hargeon. The sky was slowly turning into red hexagons, all stating the same phrase: _Warning. GM coming._ "Close. Gate of the southern cross." Lucy said, returning his key into her keyholder. "N-no way..." Natsu said.

"Wha?" Lucy says as she sees herself slowly disintegrate into a golden blinding light. She glances at Natsu and Happy, who were all going through the same thing. Before she knew it, she was in the middle of the town square,

"Forced teleportation?" Lucy murmured. A giant cloaked figure slowly started to make shape from the sky, eventually turning into a giant persona. "It must be some sort of event. Man, we freaked out about nothing." Natsu grinned.

Lucy narrowed her eyes, looking at the cloaked figure. "Hello, my fellow players." His voice boomed. People started to quiet down and murmured. The figure turned his head around, inspecting all the players.

"I should probably introduce myself before continuing. I am Zeref, the creator of this game, Fiore Online." People started to murmur with wonder:

"_No way!"_

"_I heard his chances of success were less than 1 in 1000..."_

"_He's a genius."_

"Anyways, getting back to the point. As many of you noticed, the log-out button wasn't there in your menu." Lucy gulped, furrowing her eyebrows.

"This is not a glitch. I repeat, this is not a glitch-

This is just a feature of Fiore Online."

Aghast voices and angry tones were evident in the crowd. People comforted each other by saying it's just an event.

"To get out of this game, you must defeat all 100 bosses." Zeref held out his arms, "And if you die in this world...you'll die in the real world too."

Calamity broke out in the audience. Lucy took shaky breaths. Should she even believe this guy's announcement? The mage glanced at Natsu, who for the first time since she met him, looked serious.

"Oh, and if your nerve gear gets taken off-the microwaves evident in the helmet will kill you. Fear not, I have sent this to plenty of news organizations around the world." Many hologram-screens of news articles and news channels appeared around him.

"Before I go, I have enclosed a present in your inventory. Go ahead and open it." Lucy, who was trembling and shakily breathed, slid her menu and found the item.

"Mirror?" She questioned, opening it. An ornate hand mirror fell into her hands, and she looked at her reflection. Lucy really didn't look like herself-only a few features of her appearance(blonde, brown eyes) were evident.

Suddenly, a white light enveloped her. When Lucy looked at her reflection, she looked _exactly like herself again. _"Hey...who are you?" A handsome pink-haired guy looked at her curiously, with Happy...

"Oh! Natsu! Ah-er...It's me, Lucy." Natsu's stare changed from clueless to familiarity. "Oh! So this is how you look like in real life!" He grinned. Lucy looked at him confusedly, how could he be smiling?

Zeref's figure slowly faded away, leaving the players to their own. "Hey." Natsu said in all seriousness. "Alot of my friends were thinking of making a guild. Do you wanna join?" He said cheekily, holding out his hand.

Lucy looked at him with wonder-how could someone brush off such catastrophic events with a grin? How is he smiling? Isn't he scared?

But somehow, looking at his stupid grin, it gave her some sort of power. Lucy smiled, a real smile, and took his hand.

"Of course."

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**A/N: **_Yay! I updated! woot woot! School is a bitch but Thanksgiving break happened. Man, you guys are great, 55 followers? Honestly, this is a pretty crappy story and I can't believe you guys care. Anyways, next chapter Lucy's going to meet everybody and make Fairy tail! yay!_


	6. Magnolia

"**D**o you really think it wasn't a hoax or something? For all we might know, the asshole might be just foolin' us," Natsu shrewdly said, calmly staring at the now huge, panicked crowd forming infront of the AI ticket booth. "This could all be some shitty joke."

Lucy glanced at Natsu's strangely calm expression, and bit her lip. "He's not joking, you know." The pink-haired boy looked up at the celestial mage with interest. "That nerve gear has the power to kill us."

Natsu lifted an eyebrow, not completely convinced at Lucy's statement. She sighed, seeing she'd have to explain it to him. "When- no, if we die here," She took a deep breath, trying to not imagine the scene, "The game will send a command to the Nerve Gear, telling it to give an electromagnetic pulse- or, a microwave," Her knees were now trembling.

"Evidently destroying the brain- which, in turn, kills us." Natsu's eyes widened, "You're smart." He said. Lucy's eye twitched. "That's the only thing that you're concerned about?" She yelled. The pink haired boy just shrugged as he looked at the time for the next train leaving for Magnolia.

Natsu just talked hushedly with Happy every once in a while, Lucy just twiddled her fingers and messed around with her main menu. The whole situation was really awkward. The blonde sighed, and leaned back on the bench.

How would her father react when he found out his daughter was now trapped in a death game? What if he never found out? What if he was misinformed and tried to get the nerve gear off of her? Lucy shook her head, trying to focus on reality, not the "what if"s.

After an hour or two of shock,(after all, who wouldn't if they suddenly learned they were in a death game?)the celestial mage felt strangely...calm. But now, she felt actually okay. Lucy felt actual freedom for the first time in her life. It actually felt like...she was getting a weight off her chest.

_Maybe virtual reality is better than the life I had in reality,_ Her chocolate eyes widened in realization. _Maybe I should be...__fine_ _with this._ No, Lucy refused to accept that. There has to be at least one thing or person she misses back in RL. _Certainly not my father, _The blonde mused. _Spetto..._Lucy thought. To be truthful, the blonde did see her in a motherly figure.

But nowadays, she hasn't been able to see her as much, so she surprisingly didn't feel any pang. She then went through a long list of people she knew, but to no avail, Lucy found that she simply _didn't care. _Instead of being lost in the treacherous land Lucy called her mind, The blonde decided to kill time by talking to a human being(not that she really wanted to, but she doesn't really want to keep getting these thoughts).

"So...your guild's HQ is in Magnolia?" Lucy asked awkwardly, trying to make a conversation as they waited for the next train, which they had missed since the blonde was spacing out and Natsu was talking fervently with Happy. "Yeah, well not quite." Natsu grinned. "Eh?" Lucy exclaimed. "We still have to make our guild...but it'll be fine!"

Lucy raised her eyebrow, "I thought you had this all figured out." The pink haired boy shrugged, "Yeah, we do. We already know which building we're going to use as our HQ." The blonde widened her eyes, "You're a beta tester?" She gasped. Natsu laughed as he scratched his head, "Most of the guild is."

"That's...amazing!" Lucy exclaimed, looking at Natsu. "Yeah, yeah, we got through 8 floors in a year...We weren't particularly amazing or anything." He said. The celestial mage looked at him. Natsu wasn't particularly shocked, not even talking about the sudden announcement about the death game.

"How are you so calm?" Lucy wondered out loud. She quickly covered her mouth, as if it could take that comment away. Natsu looked at her in mild surprise, and chuckled. "To be honest, I'm a little scared," He said looking at his scarf, "But it's fine. As long as Fairy Tail is here, I'll be alright."

"Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked inquisitively. "Our guild name!" Happy popped out, exclaiming. Natsu smiled, probably remembering fond memories. The blonde deduced that the guild members(well, not officially yet) were probably very close. She sighed, wishing that she, too, could be close to someone like that.

"_All aboard on the train to Magnolia!" _The NPC conductor said, echoing throughout the terminal. "Guess that's our cue to go," Natsu said, getting up. Lucy responded with a "mm", getting up as well. They showed their ticket to the conductor, who let them in.

Despite it's drab exterior, the train was actually very lavish on the inside. Deep maroon drapes separated seating areas from the hall, gold accented rugs and doors of all kind were featured. It was mostly bare, since most people stayed at Hargeon in panic and confusion. "Where are we supposed to sit?" Lucy asked, breaking eye contact with her surroundings.

Natsu looked at his ticket and her's. "Our compartment is 1-B." Lucy looked for the gold plated sign which had 1-B engraved on to it. Then again, it was quite hard considering the flourish script. "I found it~" Happy smiled, pointing to the sign above one of the compartments near the back.

"Wouldn't it usually be in the front? It is 1-_B_ after all," Natsu said, almost sadly since he didn't find it first. "I think it starts from the back in alphabetical order," Lucy said, giggling. They went into the seating area, which had a huge window to look out into the world. "This train is certainly fancy," She said, leaning back into her leather seat.

"What do you mean? All trains in SAO are like this," Happy mumbled, "weird Lucy." The celestial mage sighed and chose to ignore that last comment. As a rich child, she soon grew sick of luxury. When she got to go out by herself, she always chose to immerse herself in a mediocre setting.

Looks like she won't be able to escape her lavish lifestyle in Fiore Online, either. The rest of the short train ride mainly was Happy and Natsu's bickering, while Lucy telling them to shut up since she was focusing on the scenery outside. After what seemed forever(but in reality, was only a minute) They got off on Magnolia.

"It's beautiful..." She murmured, the sakura petals flying in the breeze. In the real world, it was winter so it was nice to see spring scenery. "Hey! Lucy! Don't space out, we still have a-ways to go till we get to Fairy Tail!" Natsu yelled over his shoulder, motioning her to come. "Ah-Oh, right." Lucy ran to catch up to Natsu and Happy.

Magnolia was a bustling merchant town, which had apparently prospered in magic according to the NPC greeting them when they got out of the train. The town was barren except for NPCs, since most of the players stayed at Hargeon. They had to walk for half an hour to get to "Central Path" where most of the festivals and events happen, according to Natsu.

Central Path was the heart of the city and cut through it as a main road, and lead right to the soon-to-be Fairy Tail guild. "Here we are!" Natsu said, snapping Lucy out of her thoughts.

"Fairy Tail!"

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**AN: **_Haha, I love to troll you guys. Bet ya thought you were going to meet Fairy Tail, hehe. Next chapter I am absolutely going to do it, since it's obligatory. I did manage to uphold my promise, updating once a week and all. I surprised myself, I thought I wouldn't update before 2015 but I did it for all of you :D This year has been great, after being inactive on fanfiction for so long. I just gave up, and some of you gave me the motivation to keep me going, and for that, thank you. Thank you for being through this journey, wether it was reviewing, favoriting, follwing or even reading this story. Hope all of you have a happy New Year!_

_*EDIT*: Holy shit guys, I was uploading this and checking everything when I realized...this story has 65 followers! Like, WTF! Thank you guys so_ _much. _


	7. This Guild's Insane!

**AN:** _Thank you all for __**100+**_ _followers! I'm done with NHD, so I have freedom once again! Also, the guild hall described is the current one, not the former building that Phantom Lord destroyed. Is it just me or has FT killed everybody with it's latest chapters?(But now their reuniting). Enjoy!_

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"**H**ere we are, Fairy Tail!" Natsu announced. A huge barren 3-story hall stood before them. "Amazing!" Lucy gasped. Happy nodded in agreement, as Natsu grinned. The building itself was very impressive- Lucy noted the medieval influences in its architecture, and the celtic BGM playing. Lucy walked up to the extravagant gate, seeing if she could go in.

The guild hall wasn't exactly Fairy Tail's yet, as the "for sale" icon appeared infront of it when Lucy tried to walk in. The blonde curiously read the details about the hall- first floor was a pub-style floor with a stage, there was outdoor seating, request boards, souvenir shops, the basement was a recreation center, a huge library filled with resources and records, and a bathing house.

"This is crazy..." Lucy muttered, checking the price. The celestial mage's eyes widened. "50,000,000,000 jewels!" The blonde made quick calculations in her head, deducing that in USD it would be roughly 500 million. The blonde glanced at Natsu and Happy, who in the meantime had somehow gotten food from some type of snack bar, and were currently stuffing their mouths with junk food.

The celestial mage facepalmed, sighing. "Natsu, how exactly are you guys gonna pay this off?" Lucy asked. "Uhmf..." Natsu said with his mouth filled with food, and quickly swallowed it down, "I dunno. I think Gramps and Erza are gonna do something about it," He nonchalantly said. "So...are you saying that you have no idea how your guild is going to buy this?"

Happy shrugged. "Our guild is made up of ex-beta testers, so they probably didn't waste any time at the beginning of the game. They all went on a quest or two since they know the game well." Lucy sighed in relief. "Oi! It's Gramps and Erza!" Natsu waved his hand ridiculously to a short, old man and a beautiful red-haired woman walking down central path to the guild hall.

Lucy guessed that the stunted old man was Gramps and the beautiful redhead was Erza, logically. "What are they like?" Lucy wondered out loud. Natsu looked at her curiously, "Well, Gramps is the leader of the guild," Lucy immediately created a wise, powerful image of him, "He's a pervert." The blonde completely threw away the previous image that she had of the guild master.

"What about Erza?" Lucy asked curiously about the beauty, since she seemed like a sensible young woman(which she desperately needed company of). "Erza's a monster." Natsu and Happy shivered. Lucy raised an eyebrow, "Really? How do you know?" Natsu turned pale, "...I don't want to talk about it." Happy patted his back. The blonde rolled her eyes, "You are so melodramatic."

The two figures slowly came closer and closer until they stopped right in front of them. Erza was checking the status and price of the building, as Gramps was muttering something about going broke. "Gramps, when are we gonna buy this thing?" Natsu exclaimed excitedly. "Once we get everybody's money here," The redhead coolly responded for the guild master.

The gorgeous redhead's eyes widened a little as she saw Lucy,"Are you a new member of Fairy Tail?" Happy nodded, "She is, I found her." Lucy's eye twitched at Happy's interception of her reply. "Good, because I wasted nearly half of my money on one of the expensive bakeries in town." Lucy snickered. Natsu was afraid of _her?_ A dessert-loving redhead?

"And what about you Natsu? Do you still have money?" Natsu grumbled, his face getting paler by the second, "I lost a bet to Gray and I had to pay for my ticket...I only have 1,000 jewels..." Erza's eye twitched. "What did I say about fighting with Gray?" Erza snarled, "Do you think 1,000 jewels are going to pay this off?" Soon, Natsu was flying due to Erza's superhuman kick.

"W-wow..." Lucy weakly said. Erza sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "I guess I'll have to sell the giant monster horn to some NPC..." Lucy made an 'eep' sound, "G-Giant monster horn?" She whispered to Happy. "I told you she was scary," The blue exceed responded.

"Master, when are the others coming?" Erza asked the old guild master, "I know that Levy is sensible enough to save some money..." Gramps sighed, "Mirajane would know what to do, wouldn't she?" They kept their conversation going, but Lucy tuned them out.

Soon, she saw Natsu trudging back on the central path. "That's gotta hurt..." She said, looking at Natsu's bruises and cuts(she judged that he probably landed in a tree). Strangely enough, he was fighting with... another guy? The two figures came closer and closer until she could hear their conversation.

"...Why the hell did you crash into me, Flamebrain?"

"...Erza, okay?" Natsu huffed.

"Ha! You're such a pansy, getting kicked around by her,"

"Ice princess, you would get your ass kicked even harder,"

"You wanna go, dorito breath?"

"Is that a death sentence, popsicle head?"

Soon, a flurry of ice magic and some sort of fire magic was trashed against each other. "H-hey, Erza, shouldn't we stop those two?" Lucy pointed to the two guys who were currently engaged in a brawl.

Her dark brown eyes flashed dangerously as she looked at them. "Natsu, Gray, are fighting each other?" She yelled at them. The two boys who were fighting furiously a second ago, came to a sudden pause, their faces paling. Almost automatically, they placed their hands on each other's backs, doing some imitation of the can-can.

"No, of course not Erza! We're best friends!" The black haired ice mage yelled in a childish, happy-go-lucky tone - the exact opposite of what he was like a few seconds ago. "Aye!" Natsu became Happy-like, agreeing with Gray. Erza nodded, pleased with their conduct. The second she turned away, however, they immediately started fighting again.

Erza looked over her shoulder, swearing she heard ice magic only to be met by them prancing together. Lucy smirked, amused by how scared the two mages were of Erza. Not that she would blame them, though. The two finally came, and somehow the black-haired guy ended up naked.

Lucy covered her eyes, "Your clothes!" Gray made a "Huh?", then looked down. "Aw crap, not again!" Natsu grinned, "At least I'm not some stripper like ice princess here," He said as the guy fled to look for his clothes. "W-what was that?!" She yelled. Gramps sighed, "Habit."

"O-okay..." Lucy uneasily responded.

Soon the ice-mage came back, casually striding in as if nothing had happened. "Yo," He said, "Can I borrow your underwear?" He asked Lucy. "No way IN HELL!" She said as she flung him. Natsu looked at her in surprise, and then shuddered, "Erza #2..." Lucy slowly calmed herself down, and she looked at Erza.

The redheaded monster was currently sending PMs to everyone in the guild, as if the past events were nothing at all. Gramps was currently gone, trying to find their supposedly strongest mage, Gildarts. Natsu and Happy left to "just grab a snack" but everyone really knew that means eat a 5 course meal. Gray was headed to an NPC clothes store. Nobody was fazed by any event that happened previously.

Lucy crouched down outside of the guild hall gate, rocking back and forth, her eyes twitching. "Th-this guild...is insane!" She declared.

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**AN:** _So, I kept my promise, right? Next chapter they finally do buy the guild hall. After that, we get to officially start the plot of the story! Woot woot! Again, thank you for 100+ followers. Hope you enjoyed this edition of Fiore Online!_


	8. Joining Fairy Tail

**AN:** _I'M NOT DEAD!_

_P.S. The chapter rewrites will follow shortly after. Also, I will change this soon, but the guild hall is worth 5 mil._

"**L**evy, you have 1,000,000 jewels?!" Erza exclaimed, almost childishly. Levy nervously smiled, not knowing if it was a good thing or not. After all, she had flung Gray who had 780,000 jewels, and many others were thrown in a heap on the other side of Magnolia. Her eyes flashed with (motherly?) pride, crushing the poor bookworm into her breastplate.

"I'm proud of you." She commended, not noticing that the bluenette was crushed, and that she _possibly _could have a concussion...if concussions exist in VRMMOs. Lucy silently cheered her new friend on, she would probably tend to her wounds when she was out of Erza's grip. No normal person could withstand that mage's death grip.

Jet and Droy silently seethed in rage at their precious Levy-chan being crushed by Erza, but didn't do anything. After all, who would dare to even raise a finger against the mighty Titania? Certainly not them, they still _wanted _to live.

The redhead's words were heard through the central path, turning the heads of some. The few players who dared to travel to Magnolia awkwardly witnessed the scene, wishing they had stuck behind in Hargeon. Lucy groaned.

So, yeah, things were going great.

In the past 2 hours, she had gone through the weirdest, most exhausting time of her life. Meeting the eccentric members of Fairy Tail was no joke, and it made the celestial mage secretly wish that she had rejected Natsu's offer to join Fairy Tail. That might have been the worst decision she's made in a while.

Lucy also learned that Fairy Tail was the strongest guild in the beta testing, which was the only positive comment she could make about the guild right now. Every other experience was just horrific.

She worriedly watched over Levy, who would soon be released from Titania's "hug". After all, she was the only sane person she'd met so far, and Lucy was alot like her. Lucy didn't want to lose a friend this early into the game.

Soon, Levy was unleashed from Erza, and she came gasping to Lucy. "Are you okay, L-Levy-san?!" Lucy started panicking, checking her body. Levy weakly smiled, "So that's what Erza's hug feels like..." She drifted, waving off Jet and Droy who were doing the same thing as Lucy, "Also, just call me Levy-chan!" Levy said a little angrily.

"O-okay, uh, Levy-chan." Lucy awkwardly said. Being born into a rich and noble family, you were required to be formal with everyone, even your parents. _Especially_ your parents. So, considering that, this was completely unnatural to Lucy.

"Okay!" A cheery, feminine voice boomed. Everyone looked at the source of the sound, which was the white haired beauty. Mirajane. Lucy blushed a little. If she was being completely honest, she would say that she admires her- just by talking with her for a minute.

However, she apparently was a "kickass"(as quoted by Natsu) strong S-class wizard...so everyone is crazy here. "We currently have 4,982,895 jewels. We need 5M jewels for our guild hall, and our expenses would add 100,000 more, so we need to get at least 117,105 jewels to get the guildhall up and running!" Various groans were heard from the mages, Lucy herself included.

"Come on! Have some more spirit! Form your partie- Oh! Oops! We have to form a guild!" Lucy sweatdropped at the white haired beauty's forgetfulness. "D-don't worry! Master is on it!" She reassured herself. Lucy stared at the stunted old man, who was swiping and pressing various buttons.

A pop-up window soon appeared, startling the mage.

_**Guild Invitation**_

_Would you like to join the guild: Fairy Tail, lead by player MasterMakarov?_

Ⓞ **Yes Ⓧ No**

She sighed, and pressed the Yes button.

Then again, probably the worst decision of her life.

**AN:** _Do I get an award for having the shortest chapter ever? Do I? (Ha you guys hate me now). The reason for it is, again, I'm busy. But I wanted to give you guys __something._ _You've been waiting forever! As for the previous chapters, they'll all be upgraded to this style of writing. _

_Also, please let me know in the reviews if you noticed my writing style changed for the better. _

_You'll be seeing more of me, I promise!_

_**Karin Searim**_


	9. Not a Bad Idea After All

**AN: **_So sorry about the delay! Enjoy! _

She sighed, and pressed the Yes.

Then again, probably the worst decision of her life.

Suddenly, a strange, tingling feeling on the back of her right hand surprised her. She brought it to her face, only to be surprised even more. It was glowing a warm, soft yellow light.

Lucy smiled a little at the illusioned warmth it was radiating, before realizing her mage was surprised that this feeling could be even be reciprocated in this world of code.

Lucy brought her left hand over carefully to the source of light, like it could burn her, but as soon as the light appeared, it faded.

A strange pink symbol was now left on her hand. The blonde blinked in stupor, then brought it closer for further inspection. It had a vague resemblance of a fairy, with a head and two shapes that somewhat looked like wings. But the most striking, most clear feature of this symbol was it's tail.

Since when did fairies have tails?

"How strange..." Lucy murmured, taking another glance at the symbol before withdrawing her hands. She lifted her head to find that everyone had the same symbol, only with different hues and locations.

"That's your guild mark," A voice butted in. Lucy turned around to find Levy grinning at her, pointing towards the left side of her back. She then tilted around, letting Lucy look at her white guild mark.

"What is it for?" Lucy wondered out loud. "It's basically an identification mark. This way, you let others know you're from Fairy Tail. This will be really useful, considering alot of mage guilds will be formed in the future. Other guilds will know where you're from in one glance. It's extremely useful," Levy informed her.

Lucy stared at her, absorbing the information. "You really are fit for being an information broker, huh?" She said, chuckling. Levy mischieviously smiled. "Yes, I know. Now pay up!" The blue haired girl said jokingly.

The two laughed loudly, catching the amused glances of a few members. Soon after they were hushed by Erza, who motioned her head towards Mirajane.

"Alright, everybody! Now that we've formed our guild, let's split further into parties!" Mirajane said cheerfully, "We'll figure out how much money each party has to bring back after we see how many there are!"

"What?" Lucy said out loud, turning around to see Levy.

"Huh?"

The bluenette had disappeared. A little further away, she could see that Levy was dragged away by Jet and Droy. The blonde sighed, and waved a little to the poor bookworm who was currently being pulled on each arm like a ragdoll.

Lucy looked around, only to see people gathered in clumps. She exhaled, knowing that this would happen eventually to her. If only it didn't have to be this embarrassing.

"Lucy!"

A familiar voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Natsu was in front of her, grinning. "Wanna make a party with us?" Lucy blinked, surprised. She certainly wasn't expecting anyone to walk up to her and form a party.

"Y-yeah, I guess so," She responded lamely. A few seconds later, another window popped up in front of her.

_Join the party "Team Natsu" with player -SalamanderNatsu- and -HappyCat-?_

Ⓞ **Yes Ⓧ No**

Lucy's eye twitched at the mention of the party name. "You're really going to name this team after yourself, Natsu?" She sighed exaggeratedly.

"Yeah, so?" He responded. Lucy rolled her eyes and pressed yes, huffing a little.

"Natsu, Gray and I don't have a party to join. We'll accompany you." Erza commanded. Gray looked to the side and tched. Natsu grinned evilly.

"Of course you can join," He said, sending invitations to the two. Erza, unflinching, agreed while Gray had a..._tougher_ time with it.

"Why the hell is it named after you?" Gray said, annoyed. Natsu smiled. "Are you gonna join? Or not? I'd rather face Erza than be forced into a party with Gramps and Mira, and I know you feel the same way," He paused to look at Gray, "But of course, if you want to..."

Gray's clenched fists twitched, as if they wanted to hit Natsu, but he sighed soon after. "I hate you." Gray finally said, and accepted the invitation.

"Is everybody in a party?" Mirajane yelled. The crowd replied with nods, and a few yeses. There was one person -Laki- that had to be in a party with Gramps and Mirajane. She begrudgingly made her way through the crowd to the master and the S-class mage. Gray shuddered as she passed by, glad it wasn't him.

"OK! Let's see...we have 15 teams," Mira opened the calculator in her menu, "That means each team must raise a minimum of 7,807 jewels!" Groaning was heard throughout the crowd.

"Now, now, don't be too sad! It shouldn't be hard to do!" A few murmurs of hope were heard, "But if you don't raise this much by tomorrow, you'll be banished from Fairy Tail!" Mirajane said cruelly.

Lucy could now see how she was an S-Class wizard. "So, go along on your ways! I'm sure there are many Inns downtown. Get plenty of rest for tomorrow!" Lucy glanced at her HUD, and sure enough, it was about 9.

She swore that it felt more like 10 hours since she had logged on to this death game, but only 7 hours had passed. Unless, there was a time discrepancy between the real world and this world...

Lucy glanced up at the sky, to see myriads of stars dot the inky darkness. It all felt so..._real._ But at the same time, there was this feeling of unfamiliarity that accompanied everything. She felt a little nauseous, so she tilted her head back.

People were filtering out into the tiny cobblestone streets of Magnolia, lively chattering. Lights adorned the city streets, with lit windows everywhere in sight. NPCs started advertising their products again, sensing the presence of players.

The blonde started to walk randomly, letting herself go where ever her legs went. It was so strange, she mused, that reality was finally sinking in. She wouldn't go back to her father's mansion, at least for a while.

She wouldn't go back. Lucy wouldn't be waiting around, knowing just at a moment's notice that she could be married off.

She would be alone, independent, in a death game.

Lucy liked that.

Her stomach rumbled, causing her to blush with embarrassment. Soon, she was swept with the feeling of hunger. _What?_ She thought to herself, astonished. Lucy didn't imagine that she would be _hungry _in this game.

It was quite ridiculous and fascinating. This game actually replicated the feeling of hunger, and did it well. Lucy started glancing around, looking for a place to get food.

Her eyes finally locked at a sign. _Restaurant._ Original name, Lucy noted. She walked towards the building, sighing a little. At the front, she was promptly greeted by an NPC.

"A table for one, Miss?" The waitress asked. "Y-yes," Lucy responded. She still wasn't used to interacting with a computer program instead of an actual human being. The waitress lead her to a table, in which she sat down on.

Another window slid on to her screen. "The menu, huh?" She said out loud, sliding through the pages. Lucy was genuinely curious as to what virtual food tasted like. All of the interesting items were unfortunately out of her price range, and the blonde knew she would need some for a night at an Inn.

She pressed order, and a waiter shortly walked up to the table. "Your order?" He asked. "I'll have the starter bread and cream..." She said sheepishly. The waiter wrote it down on his note pad. "Anything else?" He questioned once more.

"No," She said. "That will be 400 jewels," He said. A window questioned her if she was sure about paying 400 jewels, so she pressed yes. "The food will be here shortly," The waiter said, walking away.

A minute after, he arrived with the platter. Lucy looked at the food. The bread was a dark brown-grey, with a creamy substance poured over it. The meal was accompanied with water as well.

Lucy picked up the bread uncertainly, and bit into it. The blonde widened her eyes. The texture of the bread was perfect, and the cream certainly tasted like cream. The mage was now accustomed to the near-reality of this world.

She finished her meal quickly, and soon a waitress walked up to the table again. "Is there anything else you would like, Miss?" Lucy shook her head politely. "Well then, thank you for coming to Restaurant. We hope we'll see you again."

The blonde stood up and politely thanked the waiter, and headed out of the restaurant. Sure enough, there was an inn right next door.

She walked into the inn, going up to the lobby. The owner, an NPC of course, charged her 1000 jewels for the night- Lucy sighed, glad that she refrained herself from getting anything expensive from the restaurant.

Lucy stretched as she settled into her room. The blonde lied down, soon finding that her outfit was a bit uncomfortable to sleep in. She opened her menu, praying that the game had other starter clothes.

Lucy breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the starter pyjamas in her inventory. She quickly changed, and collapsed onto the bed.

The blonde recalled the hectic events of the day, and chuckled a bit after thinking about Fairy Tail and their antics- everything from Gray's stripping habit and Erza's tyrant-like rule.

They were different from anybody she had met in her life- they were genuine, weird, and accepting. The rich and socially elite were generally not the best of people, and scrutinized your every action, down to the way you place your hands on your lap.

But above all of that, they were kind. The people Lucy generally were around were _nice _and _polite._ Never truly kind. Lucy smiled softly as she remembered the moment in which Natsu invited her to Fairy Tail, grinning.

When Gray casually talked to her, as if they had been friends for years.

When Erza hugged her, even if she did feel crushed.

When Levy chatted enthusiastically with her about books.

How everyone treated her kindly and respectfully, in their own way.

Lucy's eyes soften, then droop shut into dreamless sleep.

Maybe joining Fairy Tail wasn't a bad idea after all.

**AN: **_Aghh it's like 11 pm and I'm sleepy. So...you might see mistakes. Anyways, so sorry for not updating for like, ever! I made it up by making it longer than usual!_


	10. Crocus?

**A/N:** _I can't believe it's been a year since this story has started! Band camp just started, but I wanted to treat the people who have been following this story since the beginning. Thank you all so much for your continued support!_

"**U**gh..." Lucy groaned as the morning light streamed into the room . An alarming sense of unfamiliarity coursed through her when she opened her eyes to her surroundings. Yesterday's events rushed through her mind, bringing her back to the present.

Stretching her arms a bit, Lucy quietly noted that even if the feeling of drowsiness was well replicated, there was still something amiss in this feeling. Blearily blinking her eyes, she stood up, yawning.

The celestial mage swiped open to her menu, soon to find her PM box had a new message.

_1 New Message from: -SalamanderNatsu-_

_**From: -SalamanderNatsu-. Subject: Job Request**_

_**Sent At: 8:32 AM. Read: 9:13 AM**_

_Meet us at the Town Square around 10 in the morning. We got an awesome job request! _

Lucy sighed, and then proceeded to equip her gear on. Yesterday she had tried to summon her existing spirits after one another, but she could barely summon 2 in a row. Lucy's MP was still very low, but she reckoned it would get much better when she got experience.

She rushed down the stairs of the inn, politely greeting another player before rushing outside. Magnolia was bustling with life, NPC crowds moving about on their daily routines, with occasional players walking through the plaza.

After Lucy ran her way through the crowd, she balanced on the ledge separating the canal and the walkway. "Lucy!" Her eyes snapped up at the familiar voice. "Erza!" She shouted back, waving. Lucy walked towards her. "Hey," She said awkwardly.

"Come on, we have to be on time." Erza smiled, then walked by her side. The walk was actually quite enjoyable, as Erza was alot more like her than she expected. But at many times, the topic drifted over to sweets, much to Lucy's amusement.

When they reached their destination, they could see Natsu and Happy impatiently pacing back and forth. Gray was nowhere in sight. "Natsu!" Erza barked. The boy perked up and grinned. "Hey Lucy, Erza! Have you seen ice princess around?" He asked.

"Gray?" Erza asked, furrowing her eyebrows, "I don't believe I had." With this, Natsu started mumbling that 'leave it to the Stripper to come late', and 'That perv is probably searching for his clothes'.

"Oi, what did you say now?" Gray's voice suddenly said. The three turned to find Gray walking down, miraculously clothed. "Oh, hey, Ice Princess," Natsu said snarkily.

"What did you say, dorito-breath?"

"Ice Princess,"

"You wanna go, bastar-"

"Natsu, Gray." Erza said threateningly. "O-of course I wouldn't want to fight him!" Natsu said quickly. "Y-yeah, we're the best of friends!" Gray cheerfully said. Lucy held back a snort.

"So, what job request did we receive?" The redhead asked. "Um...capture a gang situated in the alleys of Crocus...20,000J reward...for mages strictly..." Natsu read the poster out loud. "Perfect," Erza interrupted him, "Let's go to the train station."

The group followed with no complaints. The Magnolia train station was eerily empty, due to the fact that majority of the players remained in Hargeon rather than venture out. Many believed it was only a matter of time before they were saved, and stubbornly waited.

Due to that, they got the entire train to themselves, fortunately. More than half of the time Lucy worried that Natsu and Gray would destroy the train somehow, with the each of them threatening one another with magic. Which brings her to the thought...

"What types of magic do you all use?" Lucy wondered out loud. Erza blinked, then smiled, "I forgot for a second you weren't here during the beta testing," She paused to glare at Natsu and Gray(who were currently fighting), "I am a Requip mage." Lucy stared at her, cluelessly.

"Requip magic is a type of caster magic- you do know the difference between caster and holder, right?" Erza asked. Lucy nodded, and motioned for her to go on, "Requip allows you to store weapons and armor in a pocket dimension. This makes it very flexible in battle, as you can summon weapons even in the midst of battle,"

"Wow, that's amazing! How many weapons do you have there currently?" Lucy asked, genuinely interested. Erza immediately grew more enthusiastic, " I currently have 5 sets stored! Later on in the game, when I level up, I'll have access to even more." The blonde smiled, and nodded.

"What about them?" She asked. "Natsu has Fire Dragon Slayer magic- a caster type," Lucy looked at her, confused, "You mean Fire magic?" Erza shook her head, "There are types of magic which only one player in the game can have. Fire Dragon Slayer magic is one of them. With this magic, Natsu practically has the power of a Fire Dragon."

Lucy widened her eyes, "That's amazing..." Erza smiled, "But, of course, not enough to beat me." The blonde sweatdropped a little at her added comment. "Let me guess, Gray's magic is Ice magic?" Lucy asked, "I saw him trying to use it against Natsu."

"Not far off," The requip mage said, "He has Ice-Make magic. This enables him to make and sculpt ice at his will. This type of magic does not have many limits, since the user can virtually create anything," She remarked.

Lucy was amazed at how impressive their types of magic were.

"What about you, Lucy? Was your magic what caused that old man to appear?" Natsu butted in. The celestial mage blinked, then sighed as she realized he was talking about . "I'm use Celestial Spirit Magic. It's a holder-type, and it may be hard to explain..." Erza urged her to go on, nonetheless. "I can summon spirits from the Spirit world to fight alongside me," The 3 blinked, not fully comprehending.

"You'll find out soon," Lucy reassured. The group returned to their usual antics, until the NPC conductor said that they were stopping at Crocus. The four walked out, anxious to get to their mission.

Natsu sniffed the air, then wrinkled his nose. "What is it, Flame Brain? You a dog or something?" Gray nonchalantly said. Natsu glared a little at the ice mage, then continued sniffing, "It smells...like fire and burnt wood..."

The three dismissed it, thinking that some NPC was burning wood somewhere. "Erza, where's the front entrance to Crocus?" Lucy asked, looking around. "Follow me," She said, confidently walking to their left.

Natsu and Gray followed. "The scent's getting stronger," He mumbled. "That's probably because someone's burning wood nearby," Erza reassured. After a few minutes, Lucy herself noticed the pungent smell of smoke.

"That's strange, I can smell it as well, but I don't see anything that would be the cause of it," Erza noted. Lucy sighed a little as she saw the front entrance of Crocus in sight, her backpack was getting a little heavy, but then bolted in alarm.

"Is that..." Lucy said, astonished. Natsu gulped.

"That's Crocus?" Erza demanded.

"Yeah, just that it's on fire," Gray muttered sarcastically.

**A/N:** _Next chapter, you can hopefully see everyone's magic! Again, thank you all so much for reading this story. It would be great to get some reviews for it's anniversary!_


	11. Alas, I am not dead! (Author's note)

Hey guys!

Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me, huh? I updated months ago- August! And I'm sorry about that. As an excuse, marching band took up my life from August till October, so that was fair. But the entirety of November was me slacking off.

I honestly could have updated a _month _ago, but I was too lazy. I'm sorry.

Now, when I have the motivation to write- alas, writer's block! I'm determined to update before November ends (2 days from now) but I'm going to need some suggestions from you. Yes, you!

It would be greatly appreaciated if you guys suggest things. Just keep in mind: it might not show up! If you decide to suggest things, thank you so much!

Here's to many more chapters of Fiore Online!

**Empress Fishy**


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